James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

CG Art

Contact

or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

Permissions

All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Here's a plein-air study of kids frolicking at the beach by Peder Krøyer. The bits of foam seem whiter than white because in a way, they are.

(Detail of above) By applying the white as a very thick impasto, it sticks up above the rest of the paint, and even casts a little shadow underneath. Since most paintings are illuminated from above, those globs of paint catch a highlight that's actually whiter than ordinary white paint applied flat to the surface of the painting.
----
Thanks, Timothy Adkins for the photo.

Things like this that can occur naturally due to the nature of the medium can be used to the great advantage of the artist. You can try to emulate it all you want when working digitally, but this is an advantage oils and acrylics have over digital. Of course us digital types have our own advantages...

How much illustration is scanned versus photographed for reproduction these days? I'm guessing that scanning would lose the sculptural/shadow effect of impasto to a large degree. But I'm also thinking that most work is photographed now, and can therefore be lit to accentuate this usually positive quality.

Tom, yes, good point. Art shot in museums or galleries has directional lighting that brings out the sculptural quality of the impastos. If the work is lit with two equal copy lights from the sides, the effect disappears. In a previous post, I talk about how my copy photographer, Art Evans of Massachusetts, uses directional lighting: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2007/12/texture-part-1-surface.html

Michael, I'm glad you mentioned the benefit of warming the white a little to make it even brighter. It reproduces better that way, too.

Joshua, good point. Hand painted and digital (both 2D and 3D)—and photography— have distinctive qualities that are fun to emulate in a different medium. I know several photographers who go for a "painterly" look, and I know I'm influenced and inspired by digital tools even though I paint totally by hand.

It's interesting how an unintended aspect of the medium can be used to great effect. It even works that way in the digital realm.When I first did art for computer games on the Apple IIe and Commodore 64, our display consisted of a color television set. This meant a white pixel was bright enough to cast a shadow on the wall behind you! The pixels were big and bright, with a lot of spill, and I relied on that to blend my colors together. It worked great.My happiness at the introduction of modern high resolution monitors was crushed when I could not use the same tricks. I found I had to tediously blend the colors by hand, and the results were still not as bright and vibrant as the old TVs.

Hi JamesSorry off topic question: I am trying to find an artist you posted about. I believe he was Russian or maybe Scandinavian and did very dark, spooky, mysterious work. (I searched all these terms but came up empty, although I found a lot of cool stuff from way back!) I think I remember Sphinx(s) in one of the paintings. Hope you can help!